Bernie Sanders says US has 'moral responsibility' to waive vaccine patents

US officials and drug makers have faced urgent calls for some time to end a blockade on Covid-19 vaccine patent rules that have handed pharmaceutical companies effective monopoly control over their production.

Despite early warnings and pleas from aid groups and poor countries to waive IP rights to allow them to develop their own vaccines in the middle of the pandemic, fewer than 1% of existing doses were administered in low-income countries by the end of March.

“There is something morally objectionable about rich countries being able to get that vaccine,” Bernie Sanders told Meet the Press.